Zipline drone responds, saves a 9-day-old baby in hours

Zipline has been saving lives for the last few years with its long distance drones delivering life-saving medical equipment and materials to hard to reach villages throughout Rwanda and Ghana. Today we are taking a look at an everyday flight one of Zipline’s drones makes to save another life.

Zipline drone responds, saves a 9-day-old baby in hours

In a post from Nicholas Nunno on LinkedIn, he goes through an everyday flight for a Zipline drone.

At 8:15 pm an emergency order is received, stating a 9-day-old baby is in critical condition and requires life-saving blood. 5 minutes later, at 8:20 pm the drone is ready and cleared for flight by Rwanda Airports. At 8:25 pm the drone takes off for its 65-mile (105 km) journey, to the baby in critical condition. 40 minutes later, the drone arrives at the location and is met by medical professionals waiting to save the baby’s life. After the drone is launched, it then flies back to its starting point, waiting for its next flight mission.

Zipline has already made over 25,000 life-saving deliveries and will continue to do so into the next decade. The Zipline drones can carry 1.8kg per flight if more is needed, multiple drones are sent together. The drones have a service radius of around 50 miles (80 km) and an average flight time of 30 minutes, which would have taken a truck 5 hours to get to the patient and back.

A Mother from Rwanda stated, at first she thought using drones was a crazy idea until one of the drones saved her life.

“I used to see the drones fly and think they must be mad, until the same drone saved my life.” – Alice Mutimutuje

Reactions like this are expected as drone deliveries are still a new concept for many people. This will only change with time, as more companies take on drone delivery as the preferred method of delivery. What do you think about Zipline and its drones? Let us know in the comments below.

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Photo: Zipline